Editing John Wayne Gacy (section)

==Investigation==
When Piest failed to return, his family filed a missing person report with the Des Plaines police. Torf named Gacy as the contractor Piest had most likely left the store to talk to. Lieutenant [[Joseph R. Kozenczak|Joseph Kozenczak]], whose son attended [[Maine West High School]] like Piest, chose to investigate Gacy further.<ref>{{cite news|last=O'Donnell|first=Maureen|url=https://chicago.suntimes.com/2016/6/24/18463450/joseph-r-kozenczak-des-plaines-detective-chief-on-the-gacy-serial-slayer-case-dead-at-75|title=Joseph R. Kozenczak, Des Plaines Detective Chief on the Gacy Serial-slayer Case, Dead at 75|newspaper=[[Chicago Sun-Times]]|date=June 24, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200916180536/https://chicago.suntimes.com/2016/6/24/18463450/joseph-r-kozenczak-des-plaines-detective-chief-on-the-gacy-serial-slayer-case-dead-at-75|archive-date=September 16, 2020}}</ref> A check of Gacy's criminal background revealed that he had an outstanding battery charge in Chicago and had been imprisoned in Iowa for the sodomy of a 15-year-old boy.{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=17–28}}

Kozenczak and two Des Plaines police officers visited Gacy at his home the following evening. Gacy indicated he had asked one of the youths working at the pharmacy—whom he believed to be Piest—whether there were any remodeling materials behind the store.{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=17–28}} He was adamant, however, that he had not offered Piest a job, and had only returned to the pharmacy shortly after 8:00&nbsp;p.m. as he had left his appointment book.{{sfn|Cahill|1986|pp=205–233}} Gacy promised to come to the station later that evening to make a statement, indicating he was unable to do so at that moment as his uncle had just died. When questioned as to how soon he could come to the police station, he responded, "You guys are very rude. Don't you have any respect for the dead?"{{sfn|Cahill|1986|pp=239–243}}

At 3:20&nbsp;a.m., Gacy arrived at the police station covered in mud, claiming he had been involved in a car accident. On returning to the police station later that day, Gacy denied any involvement in Piest's disappearance and repeated that he had not offered him a job. Gacy reiterated that he had returned to the pharmacy in response to a phone call from Torf informing him he had left his appointment book at the store. Detectives had already spoken with Torf, who denied calling Gacy. At the request of detectives, Gacy prepared a written statement detailing his movements on December 11.{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=17–28}}

===First search warrant===
Suspecting Gacy might be holding Piest at his home, Des Plaines police obtained a search warrant on December 13.{{sfn|Hunter|2022|p=156}} This search revealed several suspicious items, including several police badges; a [[starting pistol]]; a syringe and hypodermic needle; handcuffs; books about homosexuality and pederasty;{{sfn|Cavendish|1997|p=3}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thewrap.com/john-wayne-gacy-shocking-revelations-peacock-series-killer-clown/|title='John Wayne Gacy: Devil in Disguise': 11 Shocking Revelations from Peacock's Series About the Killer Clown|work=thewrap.com|date=March 25, 2021|access-date=December 31, 2021|archive-date=December 31, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211231041149/https://www.thewrap.com/john-wayne-gacy-shocking-revelations-peacock-series-killer-clown/|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|page=33}} pornographic and stag films; capsules of [[amyl nitrite]]; a dildo;{{sfn|Cahill|1986|p=243}} a two-by-four with two holes drilled into each end; bottles of [[Valium]] and [[atropine]]; several driver's licenses; a blue hooded [[parka]];{{sfn|Hunter|2022|p=156}} and underwear too small to fit Gacy.{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|p=33}} They also found a class ring engraved with the initials J.A.S.{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=84–93}} and a Nisson Pharmacy photo receipt in a trash can, alongside a {{convert|36|in|cm|adj=on}} section of nylon rope.{{sfn|Cahill|1986|pp=239–243}}

===Surveillance===
The Des Plaines police confiscated Gacy's Oldsmobile and other PDM work vehicles. Surveillance teams (consisting of officers Mike Albrecht and David Hachmeister, and Ronald Robinson and Robert Schultz) monitored Gacy as the investigation continued.{{sfn|Cavendish|1990|p=1915}}{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|p=41}} The following day, investigators received a phone call from Michael Rossi, who informed the investigators of Gregory Godzik's disappearance and the fact that another PDM employee, Charles Hattula, had been found drowned in an Illinois river earlier that year.{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=53–55}}{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=123–127}}

On December 15, Des Plaines investigators obtained further details of Gacy's battery charge, learning Jeffrey Rignall had reported that Gacy had lured him into his car, then chloroformed, raped and tortured him before dumping him in Lincoln Park. In an interview with Gacy's former wife the same day, they learned of the disappearance of John Butkovich.{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=84–93}} The same day, the class ring was traced to a John Alan Szyc.{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=53–55}} An interview with Szyc's mother revealed that several items from her son's apartment were also missing, including a Motorola television.{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=99–104}}{{sfn|Nelson|2021|p=243}}

By December 16, Gacy was becoming affable with the surveillance detectives, regularly inviting them to join him for meals in restaurants and occasionally for drinks in bars or at his home. He repeatedly denied involvement with Piest's disappearance and accused the officers of harassing him because of his political connections or his recreational drug use. Knowing these officers were unlikely to arrest him on anything trivial, he taunted them by flouting traffic laws and succeeded in losing his pursuers more than once.{{sfn|Amirante|2011|p=89}} That afternoon, Cram consented to a police interview, in which he revealed that, because of his poor timekeeping, Gacy had once given him a watch, explaining he got it "from a dead person".{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|p=71}}{{efn|Cram also informed investigators in this interview Gacy had allowed him to retain a driver's license belonging to a [[DeVry University]] student he found in Gacy's garage in approximately February 1977 so he could engage in underage drinking. According to Cram, Gacy also informed him this identification belonged to a deceased individual.}}

Investigators conducted a formal interview of Rossi on December 17. He informed them Gacy had sold him Szyc's vehicle, explaining that he had bought the car from Szyc because he needed money to move to California. A further examination of Gacy's Oldsmobile revealed a small cluster of fibers in the trunk, suspected to be human hair. That evening, three trained [[Search and rescue dog|search dogs]] were used to determine whether Piest had been present in any of Gacy's vehicles. One laid on the passenger seat of Gacy's Oldsmobile in what the dog's handler informed investigators was a "death reaction", indicating Piest's body had been present.{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=84–93}}

That evening, Gacy invited detectives Albrecht and Hachmeister to a restaurant for a meal. Early on December 18, he invited them into another restaurant where, over breakfast, he discussed his business, his marriages and his clowning. During the conversation, Gacy remarked: "You know{{nbsp}}... clowns can get away with murder."{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|p=90}}{{sfn|Linedecker|1980|p=226}}

By December 18, Gacy was beginning to display signs of strain from the constant surveillance: he was unshaven, looked tired and anxious and was drinking heavily. That afternoon, he drove to his lawyers' office to prepare a $750,000 [[civil suit]] against the Des Plaines police, demanding that they cease their surveillance.{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=99–104}} The same day, the Nisson Pharmacy photo receipt found in Gacy's kitchen was traced to 17-year-old Kimberly Byers, a colleague of Piest at Nisson Pharmacy. Byers stated that she had borrowed Piest's parka earlier in the evening and had placed the receipt in the pocket just before she returned the coat to Piest as he left the store.{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=123–127}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/a24269889/john-wayne-gacy-kim-byers-lund-interview/|title=A Serial Killer, a Receipt, and My Mom: Haunted by the Murder of 33 Boys|date=October 31, 2018|website=harpersbazaar.com|access-date=March 10, 2024}}</ref>

===Second search warrant===
The same evening, Rossi was interviewed a second time. This time he was more cooperative. He informed detectives that in the summer of 1977, at Gacy's behest, he had spread ten bags of [[Lime (material)|lime]] in the crawl space of Gacy's house.{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=141–145}}

On December 19, investigators began compiling evidence for a second search warrant for Gacy's house. The same day, Gacy's lawyers filed the civil suit against the Des Plaines police. The hearing for the suit was scheduled for December 22. That afternoon, Gacy invited the surveillance detectives inside his house again. As Robinson distracted Gacy with conversation, Schultz walked into Gacy's bedroom in an unsuccessful attempt to write down the serial number of the Motorola television they suspected belonged to Szyc. While flushing Gacy's toilet, the officer noticed a rancid smell he suspected could be that of rotting corpses emanating from a heating duct.{{efn|Schultz initially believed this odor to source from a broken sewage pipe.{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|p=125}}}} The officers who had searched Gacy's house previously had failed to notice this, as the house had been cold.{{sfn|Cavendish|1990|p=1915}}

Investigators interviewed both Cram and Rossi on December 20. When questioned as to where he believed Gacy had concealed Piest's body, Rossi replied Gacy may have placed the body in the crawl space.{{sfn|Foreman|1992|pp=68–77}}{{sfn|Cahill|1986|pp=253–262}} Rossi agreed to submit to a polygraph test. He denied any involvement in Piest's disappearance or any knowledge of his whereabouts. He soon refused to continue the questioning, and Rossi's "erratic and inconsistent" responses while attached to the polygraph machine rendered Kozenczak "unable to render a definite opinion" as to his truthfulness.{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=141–145}} Rossi did, however, further discuss the trench digging he did in the crawl space and remarked on Gacy's insistence that he not deviate from where he was instructed to dig.{{sfn|Cahill|1986|p=181}}

Cram informed investigators of Gacy's attempts to rape him in 1976. He stated that after he and Gacy had returned to his home after the December 13 search, Gacy had turned pale after seeing a clod of mud on his carpet and had immediately entered the crawl space to look for evidence of digging. When asked whether he had been to the crawl space, Cram replied he had once been asked by Gacy to spread lime down there and had also dug trenches, which Gacy had explained were for [[Drainage#Drainage in construction|drainage]] pipes. Cram stated these trenches were {{convert|2|ft|1}} wide, {{convert|6|ft}} long and 2 feet deep—the size of graves.{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=141–145}}

====Confession====
On the evening of December 20, Gacy drove to his lawyers' office in [[Park Ridge, Illinois|Park Ridge]] to attend a scheduled meeting, ostensibly to discuss the progress of his civil suit. Gacy appeared anxious and disheveled and immediately asked for an alcoholic drink. Sam Amirante fetched a bottle of [[Seagram]]s whiskey,<ref>{{cite news|last=Dudek|first=Mitchell|url=https://chicago.suntimes.com/2018/12/14/18416340/where-john-wayne-gacy-buried-the-bodies-more-key-sites-tied-to-serial-killer|date=December 14, 2018|title=Where John Wayne Gacy Buried the Bodies, More; Key Sites Tied to Serial Killer|newspaper=[[Chicago Sun-Times]]|access-date=April 7, 2023}}</ref> and Gacy immediately drank two cupfuls. Amirante—by this stage dubious of Gacy's claims of innocence—then asked what he had to discuss with them, placing a copy of the ''[[Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, Illinois)|Daily Herald]]'' on his desk and stating: "You said you had something new to tell me! Something important!" Gacy picked up the newspaper, pointed to the front-page article covering the disappearance of Piest and said, "This boy is dead. He's dead. He's in a river."{{sfn|Amirante|2011|p=126}}

Gacy then proceeded to give a rambling confession that ran into the early hours of the following morning. He began by stating he had "been the judge{{nbsp}}... jury and executioner of many, many people", and that he now wanted to be the same for himself.{{sfn|Amirante|2011|p=127}} He stated he had murdered "at least thirty" victims, most of whom he had buried in his crawl space, and had disposed of five other bodies in the Des Plaines River. Gacy dismissed his victims as "male prostitutes", "hustlers" and "liars", adding he sometimes awoke to find "dead, strangled kids" with their hands cuffed behind their back.{{sfn|Cahill|1986|pp=165–172}} He had buried their bodies in his crawl space as he believed they were his property.{{sfn|Cahill|1986|pp=342–351}}

As a result of the alcohol he had consumed, Gacy fell asleep midway through his confession. Amirante immediately arranged a psychiatric appointment for Gacy that morning. On awakening several hours later, Gacy shook his head when informed by Amirante he had confessed to killing approximately thirty people, saying, "Well, I can't think about this right now. I've got things to do." Ignoring his lawyers' advice regarding his scheduled appointment, Gacy left to attend to his business.{{sfn|Amirante|2011|p=150}}

Gacy later recollected his memories of his final day of freedom as being "hazy", adding he knew his arrest was inevitable and that he intended to visit his friends and say his farewells. After leaving his lawyers' office, Gacy drove to a gas station where he handed a small bag of [[cannabis (drug)|cannabis]] to the attendant, who immediately handed the bag to the surveillance officers, adding that Gacy had told him, "The end is coming (for me). These guys are going to kill me." Gacy then drove to the home of a fellow contractor and friend, Ronald Rhode. Gacy hugged Rhode before bursting into tears and saying, "I've been a bad boy. I killed thirty people, give or take a few."{{sfn|Cahill|1986|pp=253–262}} Gacy left Rhode and drove to Cram's home to meet with Cram and Rossi. The surveillance officers noted he was holding a [[Catholic rosary|rosary]] to his chin, praying while he drove along the expressway.{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=152–157}}

After talking with Cram and Rossi, Gacy had Cram drive him to a scheduled legal meeting. Cram informed the surveillance officers that Gacy had told him and Rossi that he had confessed to over thirty murders with his lawyers the previous evening. Gacy then had Cram drive him to Maryhill Cemetery, where his father was buried.{{sfn|Cahill|1986|pp=253–262}}

As Gacy drove to various locations that morning, police outlined the formal draft of their second search warrant, specifically to search for Piest's body in the crawl space. On hearing from the surveillance detectives that, in light of his erratic behavior, Gacy might be about to commit suicide, police decided to arrest him on a charge of possession and distribution of cannabis in order to hold him in custody, as the formal request for a second search warrant was presented.{{efn|Recreational use of cannabis was illegal in the state of Illinois prior to 2020.<ref>{{cite news|title=The Beginning of a New Age, the End of an Antiquated Viewpoint: Long Lines, Celebrations Mark First Hours of Recreational Marijuana Sales in Illinois|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/marijuana/illinois/ct-legal-weed-first-day-recreational-sales-20200101-fhtdvp4j6naphff6jmnnh6fkqy-story.html|access-date=May 7, 2021|work=[[The Chicago Tribune]]|date=January 1, 2020|archive-date=April 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418101653/https://www.chicagotribune.com/marijuana/illinois/ct-legal-weed-first-day-recreational-sales-20200101-fhtdvp4j6naphff6jmnnh6fkqy-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref>}}{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=152–157}} At 4:30&nbsp;p.m. on December 21, the eve of the hearing of Gacy's civil suit, a second search warrant was granted.{{sfn|Amirante|2011|p=171}} After police informed Gacy of their intentions to search his crawl space for the body of Piest, Gacy denied the teenager was buried there, but confessed to having killed in self-defense a young man whose body was buried under his garage.<ref name=timeline/>

Armed with the signed search warrant, police and evidence technicians drove to Gacy's home. They found Gacy had unplugged his [[sump pump]], flooding the crawl space with water; they replaced the plug and waited for the water to drain. Evidence technician Daniel Genty then entered the {{convert|28|x|38|ft|adj=on}} crawl space, crawled to the southwest area and began digging.{{sfn|Foreman|1992|pp=50–58}} Within minutes, he uncovered putrefied flesh and a human arm bone. Genty shouted to the investigators that they could charge Gacy with murder, adding, "I think this place is full of kids." A police photographer uncovered a [[patella]] in the northeast corner. The two then began digging in the southeast corner, uncovering two lower leg bones.{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=166–179}}

The victims were too decomposed to be Piest. As the body in the northeast corner was unearthed, a crime scene technician discovered the skull of a second victim alongside this body. Later excavations of the feet of this second victim revealed a further skull beneath the body.{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=207–223}} Because of this, technicians returned to the trench where the first body was unearthed, discovering the [[rib cage]] of a fourth victim, confirming the scale of the murders.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nwitimes.com/uncategorized/gacy-s-murder-spree-still-vivid/article_766f66e7-db97-565c-8895-13914aeac051.html|title=Gacys Murder Spree Still Vivid|newspaper=[[The Times of Northwest Indiana]]|date=April 25, 1994|access-date=September 28, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200928070754/https://www.nwitimes.com/uncategorized/gacy-s-murder-spree-still-vivid/article_766f66e7-db97-565c-8895-13914aeac051.html|archive-date=September 28, 2020}} {{Open access}}</ref>

====Arrest====
After being informed that the police had found human remains in his crawl space and that he would now face murder charges, Gacy told officers he wanted to "clear the air".{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=166–179}} In the early morning hours of December 22, and in the presence of his lawyers, Gacy provided a formal statement in which he confessed to murdering approximately thirty young males—all of whom he claimed had entered his house willingly.{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=166–179}} Some victims were referred to by name, but Gacy claimed not to know or remember most of the names.{{sfn|Cahill|1986|pp=281–284}} He claimed all were teenage male runaways or male prostitutes, the majority of whom he had buried in his crawl space.{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=166–179}} Gacy claimed to have dug only five of the graves in this location and had his employees (including Godzik) dig the remaining trenches so that he would "have graves available".{{sfn|Amirante|2011|pp=140–142}} When shown a driver's license issued to a Robert Hasten which had been found on his property, Gacy claimed not to know this individual but admitted that this license had been in the possession of one of his victims.{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=360–374}} He also confessed to having planned to further conceal the bodies beneath his property by covering the entire crawl space with concrete in January 1979.{{sfn|Cahill|1986|pp=205–233}}

When questioned specifically about Piest, Gacy confessed to luring him to his house and strangling him on December 11. He also admitted to having slept alongside Piest's body that evening, before disposing of the corpse in the Des Plaines River in the early hours of December 13.<ref>{{cite news|last=Rossi|first=Rosalind A.|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=aE80AAAAIBAJ&pg=6517,3813660|title=Alleged Victim of Gacy Never Returned to Store|newspaper=[[Sarasota Herald-Tribune]]|date=February 10, 1980|access-date=October 24, 2018|via=Google News|archive-date=October 6, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201006152021/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=aE80AAAAIBAJ&pg=6517%2C3813660|url-status=live}} {{Open access}}</ref> On his way to the police station, he had been in a minor traffic accident after disposing of Piest. His vehicle had slid off an ice-covered road and had to be towed free.{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=166–179}}
[[File:John Gacy Home Diagram Kokomo Tribune December 28 1978.jpg|thumb|upright=1.45|Diagram of Gacy's Norwood Park residence, depicting the dimensions of his crawl space]]

Accompanied by police, his lawyers, and his older sister, Gacy was driven to the I-55 bridge on December 23 to pinpoint the precise spot where he confessed to having thrown the body of Robert Piest and four other victims into the river.{{sfn|Cahill|1986|pp=205–233}}{{sfn|Amirante|2011|p=187}} Gacy was then taken to his house and instructed to mark his garage floor with orange spray paint to show where he had buried the individual he had supposedly killed in self-defense, whom he named as John Butkovich.{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=184–188}} To assist officers in their search, Gacy drew a rough diagram of his basement to indicate where their bodies were buried. Twenty-six bodies were unearthed from Gacy's crawl space over the next week; three others were also unearthed elsewhere on his property. As the flooring and walls of the property were dismantled, additional evidence including identification cards and further [[Deviance (sociology)|deviant]] sex books were discovered.{{sfn|Sullivan|2000|pp=207–223}}<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Chirito|first=Robert|url=https://www.chicagomag.com/news/december-2019/patti-vasquez-john-wayne-gacy-michael-bonnin/ |title=Candidate for IL House: Gacy Killed My Brother |magazine=[[Chicago (magazine)|Chicago]] |date=December 10, 2019 |access-date=October 8, 2023}}</ref>{{efn|Police did confiscate sophisticated movie camera equipment from Gacy's property. However, no conclusive evidence exists to suggest any of Gacy's victims were forced to appear in [[Snuff film|snuff]] or pornographic films prior to their murder.{{sfn|Conti|2024|p=150}}}}